Amy Vaughn:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to our weekly power lounge. This is your place to hear authentic conversations from those who have power to share. My name is Amy Vaughn, and I am the owner and chief empowerment officer of Together Digital, a diverse and collaborative community of women who work in digital and choose to share their knowledge, power, and connections. You can join the movement together on digital.com. And today, we are joined by Erin Maxson. She is mastering the art of impact marketing at one of America’s largest workplace providers and who is also an amazing partner to Together Digital, COHatch. Erin is joining the show to tell us about how making a difference doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, some of the most powerful community initiatives don’t cost a dime.
Amy Vaughn:
She is from her home based in Phoenix, which I’m kinda sorta jealous about right now because I am sitting in gloomy Cincinnati, Ohio, where she balances national digital strategies with her love for the desert adventure. For desert adventure, her 3 dogs, Erin brings a unique perspective on how technology and marketing can be forced for good. She is going to share practical, accessible ways to weave purpose into your marketing DNA. So whether you’re a seasoned marketer looking to add more meaning into your campaigns, or you’re just starting to explore your work and how to create positive change, this conversation is certainly for you. We will talk about finding your why, maximizing your impact on a minimal budget, and why the bottom line isn’t the only line that actually matters. So grab your coffee, your tea, your notebook, and join us for the next hour as we explore how to make marketing matter more. And for those of you who are with us listening live, don’t forget you can join the conversation through the chat. We love to hear your comments and especially your questions.
Amy Vaughn:
Erin, thanks for joining us today.
Erin Maxson:
Thank you for having me. I’m very excited.
Amy Vaughn:
Me too. Me too. Again, this is something near and dear to my heart. I’ve been a marketer for longer than I would probably like to say. It stops at 15 years, and then I just kind of quit adding years after that. I’m like, oh, we’re just gonna stop counting after 40. I’m like, and then some change. But, you know, mission is just another and purpose is just another thing that over the years has just become more and more prevalent and meaningful, not to just us marketers, but to consumers as well.
Amy Vaughn:
And I’m really curious for you to share, with our listeners, you know, that, how purpose, has become a part of your journey. I know you’ve said in the past, it’s been there kind of from the start, but what was that first moment that sparked your interest in Impact Driven Marketing?
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. So I graduated with a marketing degree, and I changed my major seven times. And it got to the point where I was just like, I gotta get out of here, man. And so I ended up going back to the College of Business and I got my marketing degree. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it. I was really into sports then, and thought I was gonna work in the NBA, which is a little bit of a different kind of life, 120 hour weeks and always being on the go. Paycheck did not add up. So I started looking at other things, and I got my first job out of college, remote.
Erin Maxson:
It was a remote job for an agency based out of Louisiana and I was living in Fort Worth. I’d love to say that that agency was very impact driven. It was not. But in my free time is kinda where I started mixing the impact and the marketing. I had just adopted a dog about a year prior, her name is Rory, and you’re probably gonna hear all about her. She’s my little angel.
Amy Vaughn:
I love it.
Erin Maxson:
Angel dog. But I was doing marketing of all kinds. I was kind of just getting started in agency life, picking up things that I could. So I had a lot of random skill sets, social media, content creation, copywriting, advertising, all that stuff. And I started volunteering at a local shelter. So it kind of went hand in hand that I was as I started getting more involved with the shelter, they had a lot of needs, obviously, understaffed, not enough funding, all of that fun stuff. We all are known as common knowledge in a lot of different industries. But I was volunteering at this kill shelter in Fort Worth, and it really opened my eyes to how much marketing makes an impact and can really change the lives of everybody, whether that’s a dog or a person or a family.
Erin Maxson:
I spent a lot of time doing social media stuff, taking photos, and writing bios for dogs. And really, like, we could get one photo and one good bio out. You could get a dog that had been in the shelter for 200 plus days adopted in a weekend. Wow. And it was one of those things that it makes you realize that a lot of us do a lot of the same things every day in marketing. Like, you may be posting social posts every single day. But it was such an eye opening experience for me to see it really go that far and make an impact. And it also made me wanna bring that back into work.
Erin Maxson:
Right? I had a lot of small business clients at the time. I think it’s a pretty common theme that everybody’s like, I can’t make an impact. I just need to, you know, make enough revenue in order to survive this month’s kind of thing. But I was able to kinda take some of those experiences from that volunteer work. And it really kind of spurned everything else in my life afterwards, and just tried to make the most impact as possible. So it was very hard and difficult, but it was also very rewarding. So I think that’s always the common theme as well with Impact Marketing. It’s not easy to do, most of the time, but it can be very inexpensive and also, make a really big difference if you know what you’re doing and where to start. Right.
Amy Vaughn:
I love that so much, Erin. I’m very much with you. I’m an animal lover and have been since childhood. And I think oftentimes, in order to, call the drama that happens sometimes in marketing and advertising, I said, we’re not saving lives here, but what you just said is that you you were. You actually can, and you were saving lives with your marketing, and I love that so much.
Erin Maxson:
I know. Because Jamie is not able to do that now, but I do my work. We do a little bit different kinds of impact now. But
Amy Vaughn:
Right. Right. But it does go to show that. Right? Because it depends on the type of marketing that you’re doing, if it does have it can have that level of impact. And I think that is an important reminder. So while I was mentioning it a little tongue in cheek, at the end of the day, it could have that potential, and it’s a 100% right. I think, you know, I have a friend, her wife is, works at they’re they are they’re not they’re a no kill shelter. And, you know, it’s it’s a big uphill battle to try to, you know, maintain funds, to maintain space, to, you know, all of those different things, but a big part of how they are successful is truly their marketing and their ability to make these animals, you know, positioned as adaptable and to keep people aware.
Amy Vaughn:
And, you know, we had that kind of conversation at a friend’s dinner party about how instrumental marketing is. And I think the thing I’ve always loved about marketing, and I’m sure you feel this way too, is that it’s creative problem solving. And, you know, if you are truly creative, big budgets aren’t always necessarily required. Right? Like, that’s a part of problem solving sometimes. Right? Just working around those smaller budgets and figuring out how to make the most of it.
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. I think doing that early in my career was so important to making me, like, a very scrappy marketer. I think for a lot of people, if you start working at larger agencies and you get clients with a lot of budget, you’re used to certain things. Right? And it definitely worked my way up that ladder of, like, getting to a more stable business with COHatch. I worked in a lot of startups before, but I think it really helped me kinda shape the impact that you can make with, you know, pennies on the dollar, if not just using your time to be creative. So yeah.
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah. And you and I kinda had the inverse experience. I started at bigger agencies first with bigger budgets. And to me, it was like bigger budgets sometimes equaled bigger barriers. Right? Mhmm. Because all those dollars went towards a lot more layers. And usually, like, legal involved and more kind of, like, teams and things like that. And then now running a smaller, more mission based business.
Amy Vaughn:
I’m my own client. Yeah. Best client ever. Right? And then you have to figure out how to be scrappy and creative and, you know, you do maximize the dollars and the opportunities, and there are less layers and people usually involved. And so things can be more agile, and they can do more testing and learning and creating efficiencies. Whereas, like, when you have bid those bigger budgets, sometimes then you have to kind of, you know, I don’t know, almost validate the newest dollars more, and you don’t actually maximize every penny. And to me, sometimes there’s a little bit more waste in my opinion, honestly.
Erin Maxson:
Oh, yeah. For sure.
Amy Vaughn:
You don’t watch every dollar and every cent that goes through. Yeah. Yep. And
Erin Maxson:
I think that’s the important part of your So what was the Go ahead. Sorry. I was just gonna say, I think the important part is you’re if you’re looking at big budgets and things like that. A lot of those businesses have other ways of making an impact. Right? And it’s maybe not so local and not so, in touch with what the actual needs are. It’s more of like a generic overlay of what they can possibly do. And I think that’s even though it’s harder to be a smaller business or a freelancer, it definitely at least for me, it’s always been more rewarding to be able to, like, see my personal, like, I helped that dog or I worked with this person and now they’ve launched a series of books or whatever it is. And, I think that’s always there, there’s good and bad both, but I do like the challenge of being a smaller, scrappier kinda thing.
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah. That’s such a great point, that direct impact. You get to see that so much more when you’re dealing with a smaller scale. So I’m curious. How’s your approach to the community impact evolved sort of since moving to Phoenix and working with COHatch?
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. So my definition of community and community impact has definitely shifted over the last couple of years. I was living on the road for about 2, two and a half years during our wonderful COVID years. And I think that all that whole situation definitely changed the way we look at community and community impact. I spent a lot of time in Phoenix. I lived in Phoenix previously before I took my trip and did all that fun stuff. And it really has always felt like home. And even though I had friends here before, it was always very hit and miss.
Erin Maxson:
I didn’t really have, like, a true community. But as I’m now more rooted in Phoenix, it’s been increasingly more meaningful and important to me to figure out how to have an impact and how to find the right people in the community and to reach and do the right things that actually have meaningful community impact within that smaller circle. COHatch, I’ve been here for almost 4 years now. I’ve learned a lot about Impact and Impact Marketing. I think many people who have been through agency life or who have had larger scale clients probably know that everything is usually tied to the bottom line. Right? So everything that you do has to make some kind of increase and bump you up more in the green. What I’ve really enjoyed with my time at Kohatch is that I’ve felt like the pressure has been off to attach every single thing to revenue. And I can still feel it in my body a little bit every time that I, you know, pitch something or we do a campaign.
Erin Maxson:
And I’m like, oh, God. But what if we don’t make money and we just spend all this money on random collateral or whatever? But I really have had the pressure taken off of me and it’s really helped me shift my mindset a little bit, if not a lot. Matt Davis, who’s our CEO, has had to mold me from the beginning because I’ve always worked in startups. I’ve always worked in businesses where it’s like I said, everything’s tied to the bottom line. If you don’t do well, people don’t get paid. Right? But when I first joined the team, I had obviously had all that experience. All I could see was, like, we gotta be efficient, dollar signs, you know, that’s gotta be gotta be the first thing. But it was a real breath of fresh air for me because it wasn’t about a conversion.
Erin Maxson:
It was about what makes a lasting impression on our members, on our team members, on our community. Because those are the stories, those are the metrics, so to speak, that last a lifetime.
Amy Vaughn:
Right.
Erin Maxson:
And it’s very, very different, and it’s definitely more of, like, a qualitative metric. Right? But we define conversions as anything that makes an impact on our people. Right? We have members that mention things in passing like, you know, I’ve got my kid’s first birthday coming up. And part of our membership is you get free life events now. So everybody that’s a member, they have 3 events per year. They can host at any of our locations completely for free, and we track that. We wanna make sure that our members are using those benefits and getting the most out of it. And that really truly is, I would say, the majority of our reviews, the majority of the metrics that I track is gonna be the stories I hear from people, the memories that are made, how engaged people are with our brand, and the experience we provide.
Erin Maxson:
And all of that has really led to some great amazing partnerships, like, you’re looking Mhmm. To gather digital as a great partnership for us. Star House is another one. We’re working locally with Star House in Columbus to help, renovate and completely redo, an unhoused facility for youth in Columbus. So we’re working with them. We’re also working with sanctuary night to help, with those that are in sex work and making sure that they’re housed and healthy and safe. And it’s things like that we wouldn’t have been able to do if we were purely focused on revenue. But I will say that it’s the stuff that investors are interested in.
Erin Maxson:
A lot of people nowadays, especially if they’re wanting to invest big dollars in business, They wanna know what you’re doing for the people and they wanna be invested directly in their local communities. They wanna see, like, physical, tangible evidence that you’re doing something before they even put money in your business or your idea. And it’s some of that stuff that we do out of the goodness of our heart because it’s stuff that’s so meaningful to us, but it’s allowed our business to grow tenfold. We have people wanting to create impact hubs like we’re doing at Star House and other cities now. And we’d love to do it, but now you’re out of bandwidth. Right? So
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah.
Erin Maxson:
I’ve learned a lot. I think it’s definitely a mind shift set for most marketers to not see the dollar signs.
Amy Vaughn:
Right.
Erin Maxson:
But I feel like I’ve learned quite a bit, and Matt has really been, like, don’t worry about it. It’s all gonna work out if we do the right thing for the people. So
Amy Vaughn:
Mhmm. Yeah. It’s really focusing on the long game versus the short game and the immediate returns. Because I think what you’re building, in my opinion, and I it sounds like we’re very much aligned in that way. Right? It’s like you’re building belief, you’re building trust by establishing and living out your values as an organization, as a brand. And I think that’s what we’ve always loved is having Kohatch as a partner. And for those of you who aren’t familiar, live listeners, I’ve dropped the link to the Kohatch website in the chat. We’ll include it in the show notes.
Amy Vaughn:
And for those of you who aren’t familiar, they provide co working and, rented at office spaces throughout the country, namely in the Midwest and, in the South as well, and they’re kind of expanding all over. But, again, like you said, offering up those, like, life event type spaces, and it is very community centric. And your community managers, like, I mean, I have my favorite locations, and I know my community managers, and they know what’s going on with my life, and they know my kids’ names, and, you know, I know what’s going on with them and their families because, you know, there’s something about, you know, having a culture. All of us are living in this new world of, you know, hybrid and remote work, and a lot of us miss that aspect of, you know, company culture. And I think what, you know, COHatch does really well is it provides that extension of that and that sense of community. And so, like, partnerships and and working with organizations like ours, Together Digital Members, in case you don’t know, y’all should know because we message it a lot. But, like, if you’re ever looking for coworking space, you know, we get like, our members get 30% off of coworking space, which is so generous. And then if you’re looking to rent office space, like, Richard’s been working with some of our members to help them find and get space as well, which has been amazing.
Amy Vaughn:
But I have to say, Erin, what does that do for you as a marketer too? Right? When somebody as high up at the very top comes to you and says, I don’t want you to worry about the bottom line all the time. I want you to also think about, like, impact and opportunity. What does that do for your sense of risk taking and innovation?
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. I think one of the biggest things about working at COHASH and the leadership at COHASH, they put so much trust in their people to know the right thing and do the right thing. And I think there have been several roles or even freelance products that I’ve taken on where I’ve been so scared to fail. Right? Like, you do something, you have a really good idea, it’s gonna cost some money, and you’re just terrified. Like, you’ve never done it before, but you think it’s gonna be good. And if it’s not, you’re like, oh, God. I could be out of here. I might not be able to pay my bills next month.
Erin Maxson:
I don’t have that fear here at all. And there have definitely been days where I’ve shed happy tears about it because Aw. I always have. I’m a very empathetic person. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I care so much about every single person. Like, I’m one of those people, like, I see an ant on the sidewalk and I try not to step on it. And so it’s some of that that, like, it’s so nice to be able to bring that part of me to work and be able to lead my team with that mindset as well. So, like, all the things that we do, which we do a lot of internal communication as well for my team, and for the whole, like, broader organization of COHatch.
Erin Maxson:
We do a lot of, like, training and rollouts. And, like, my team is so focused on trying to do the right thing for other people. And Mhmm. It just bleeds into everything that we do now. And I like, every time I talk to people on my team or even other people, you know, like our community managers, everybody is just so impactful and heart driven. I just haven’t seen it anywhere else. And
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah. That’s fantastic.
Erin Maxson:
It’s a very good feeling. It’s much different than most places I’ve been. So yeah.
Amy Vaughn:
It gives you a good reason to show up, and then, like, you said it without that risk or without that fear of failure, that desire to, 1, show up, try harder, lean in, take those risks, be more innovative. Like, how much better of a company are you all because of that? And I have to say too, I thought it was super sweet. So shout out to all of your coworkers, by the way. You shared yesterday, I think it was, or maybe the day before on LinkedIn that you’re coming on the podcast. I have never seen so many coworkers. Do shout outs. Re-share the post. Give the praise.
Amy Vaughn:
So, I mean, y’all are doing something right, in the amount of support that I saw. So that was really wonderful. I love
Erin Maxson:
seeing that. You are gonna make me tear up thinking about it. I was already reaching out to everybody because as soon as I posted it, I was getting notifications back that everybody had shared it. And I was like, oh my gosh. All of ours Yeah. Too kind to me. So it’s yeah. We have a very, very good culture.
Amy Vaughn:
You do. And, Erin, you only get what you give. So it’s just it’s just a reflection of what you’re putting out there. So kudos to you as well. And, again, to the company and the culture that you guys are building and creating. So, yeah, it just goes to show what a great culture that you all are fostering and with the work that you’re doing. Alright. Let’s talk a little bit about some specifics on a campaign where you were able to achieve both your business goals and community impact where maybe budget was a little bit of a constraint.
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. So one of the things that I did this was early on in my career with COHatch, and we had finally gotten a team big enough. And I was getting to the spot where I was, like, what fun things can we do now? You know what I’m saying? Like, we were just trying to get through all of the things that we knew we had to do, and we finally were to the spot where we could do something different, something new. And one of my favorite things that I’ve ever seen from a marketing perspective was something called a good newspaper. And I’m sure several people, if anybody’s on here, has heard of the original good newspaper. I got their emails, and I loved it. And it was one of those things that I was like, how do I take that and do something here? Obviously, we have so many members. We have so much going on.
Erin Maxson:
It’s hard to get it all together. But I was really gung ho about it, and we didn’t print it. It is expensive for those. Yeah. I don’t know. And so we have thousands of members talking about doing a physical good newspaper. It’s, 1, an expensive task and one that’s probably not. I wouldn’t say it’s a thankless project, but it’s one of those things that I was not anticipating to have as much feedback, good feedback from it as we did. And it’s one of the things that we started off as doing is, like, we thought we were just gonna do it once and see how it went. And now we went from doing it monthly to quarterly because it’s this huge task. Yeah.
Erin Maxson:
But it’s not really a true campaign per se, but it is one of my favorite marketing projects we’ve ever done. It’s one of my favorite strategies that helps not only us but the community. We deliver it to our restaurant partners. It’s one of those things that it just is such a really cool concept and I didn’t realize even with the small budget, I think we started with maybe we did, like, maybe 200 or 300 copies the first time and we had such, like, overwhelming feedback that we were, like, we gotta keep doing this. Like, we have so many people that wanna be a part and share, and investors love getting it. Like, it’s stuff that we get asked for. Like, we do it quarterly now, so we went from monthly to quarterly this last year, just because it’s such a heavy lift and we have so many scholars now. But I get questions pretty much every month from the team.
Erin Maxson:
When’s the next good newspaper that’s coming out? My members wanna see it. I have a member that wants to be in it. The investors wanna know what stories are happening. And it’s one of our most powerful tools and projects we’ve ever done, because it really showcases not only our impact, because we really do try to stay away from, like, showing off the things that we do. Like, we may make an announcement that we open another location. But for the most part, we show off, you know, what our members are doing, our nonprofits. What are their causes? What projects are they working on? What kind of funding? What events are they doing? Start ups, what ideas are coming up and what’s trending and things like that. And even our team members, we have so many great team members that are doing volunteer work.
Erin Maxson:
Laurie, who’s in Delaware, she does the blood drive, it seems like, every other week and she is the most passionate, fantastic community manager. She stays really involved, and it’s one of my favorite things to be able to tell the stories of other people. Because I think more often than not, we get so invested in our business and our idea, we lose the stories of the people that we work with. Right? Like, why we actually do what we do and how we impact people and how people think of us and the memories, everything that’s attached to our brand beyond the people that are doing the work. It really it’s your best marketing tool for yourself, but it’s also the best way to be able to understand what people need and how you can help others in your community. So that was probably my, it’s not a specific campaign, but I was like, I gotta talk about this because it’s one of my favorite projects that we do. Absolutely.
Amy Vaughn:
Absolutely. Yeah. I always grab one whenever I’m in one of the co-working spaces. Mhmm. And I remember getting super excited because
Erin Maxson:
I got featured in 1. Yeah.
Amy Vaughn:
Was it the year before last? And, my kids were excited because they got to keep a printed copy. And, you know, in this digital age, it’s such a novel thing. But you’re right. It’s such a small nuanced thing, and there is something to that, specifically that does breathe in life to that sense of community. That is such a great idea. So I think that’s such a wonderful, notion to give to the community to think about what are those kind of nuanced ways if you’re trying to bring back a sense of community and connectedness and something like that where you’re featuring the people, the customers, the community, and something like something that’s printed that feels more tactile and permanent is such a beautiful way to express that. And it’s not you know, it might require a bit of a lift. And then if you’re kind of doing it, you know, monthly might be too much, but quarterly is just enough of a way.
Amy Vaughn:
That’s such a great way to get the engagement, and to keep the community involved. That’s a really, really wonderful, beautiful way to do it. I was gonna just throw in the fun little anecdote that I live in this really cutesy little neighborhood, that my kids help deliver the town crier. Our village literally has a printed newsletter that goes out.
Erin Maxson:
That’s
Amy Vaughn:
amazing. And I know. Right? It’s very, very quaint. And, they only just stopped it a few years back, but they used to have, like, a whole column that was neighboring with Nina where they announced new people that bought houses in the neighborhood. And they would interview the families and everything. Yeah. But it still, like, features all the small businesses in town. It talks about, like, events that are happening or upcoming.
Amy Vaughn:
It, like, it talks about, you know, history within the village. It’s just and I hope it never goes away. You know? It’s been happening for, like, 100 years, and I hope it really never goes away. Because you’re right. It kind of has that sense of community, and it’s a once a month thing during the from, I think, Labor Day to the Memorial Day, and then we have a little bit of a break. And I love that my kids do it. They get a little bit of cash for it. It’s like their little job.
Amy Vaughn:
Aw. But yeah. Yeah. It does. It creates a sense of community. So yeah. Great idea. That’s
Erin Maxson:
yeah. That’s fantastic. And I guess for those of you that are probably like, oh, I don’t have it in the budget for print, I totally get it. We also do, like, a newsletter form that we do in our off cycle, for if we have other stories that are coming in and we just can’t wait or we’ve got something really cool going on. Yeah. I will say, and I think every like, we’ve and I’ll talk more about this, is Impact Marketing does not have to be expensive and one of the cheapest, cheapest, easiest ways to motivate people to do more, to make a larger impact is storytelling. Whether that’s your story, somebody else’s story, all it costs is time and a little bit of brainpower. And those moments are far more impactful than delivering on a KPI, at least in my experience here.
Erin Maxson:
So
Amy Vaughn:
Absolutely. Absolutely, Erin. I agree. Wholeheartedly. I love that. Awesome. Alright. Let’s talk about misconceptions, in mission driven marketing.
Amy Vaughn:
What do you feel is one of the biggest, or if you wanna name a couple even?
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. I think the biggest one is that I keep saying it. People think mission driven marketing is too expensive. It’s gonna take too much time, only the big imp the big businesses can truly make an impact. I know people look at us all the time, they’re like, oh, that huge project you’re doing with Star House is so great, but I could never do that. You don’t have to make an impact. And I think one of the biggest and this is not a COASH story, but one of the biggest things that made me teary eyed, which as I get older, I noticed that I’m always, like, my little heartstrings are just pulled in every direction. But the craziest thing, I ran into somebody that I used to volunteer with at Shelter Work.
Erin Maxson:
She knew a guy who had just retired, had been an engineer all his life, and made good money. He just bought a property in Tucson, and he’s helping, reset and retrain a lot of behavioral dogs. It is a thankless job. I have worked with so many behavioral cases in the past. And I got connected with this guy. And I was just really moved by his, like, his whole, like, career. Like, he basically changed his career at the last part of, before he retired, So we’re doing all this dog training, doing all this stuff. We got connected.
Erin Maxson:
I was so moved by his mission and all the things that he’s trying to do. I sent him $5 on his website. I sent him $5. Don’t know this man. He didn’t know me. I was just a lady that pulled $5 in his PayPal account. 3 hours later, I got an email back from him, and he was thanking me profusely for my $5. Like, he was, like and I said, it’s only $5.
Erin Maxson:
Like, I could send more, but I don’t I mean, you’re getting started. I don’t know everything about you. It could have been $1,000, you know, but $5. And he sent me an email back after I said it’s only $5. I’m looking forward to seeing all your progress. And he said to me, it’s not just $5. It’s everything to me. Without people giving me $1, $2, $5, $10, $1,000, I can’t do this.
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah.
Erin Maxson:
And it was one of those moments where I was, like, you know, maybe it’s little old man syndrome. I don’t know. But I was just, like, so moved by him being willing to go back and forth with me so much over the fact that I spent $5.
Amy Vaughn:
Yes.
Erin Maxson:
So I want everybody to understand that, like, you don’t have to do much to make an impact and sometimes it’s just listening. Right? You get those stories, you tell those stories, you find ways to discount things here and there for businesses or people you believe in. I had another lady on my freelance days. She was 62 Mhmm. 63, And she had just started writing romance novels and she wrote 3 of them, wanted a website built, and she had no idea. And I did it all for free because I was just so moved by the fact that she’s Awesome. This late in the game and doing something completely different. Right? Yeah.
Erin Maxson:
And that’s a story that I will remember for the rest of my life. Mhmm. And she’s still got her website up and she’s still writing books.
Amy Vaughn:
I love it.
Erin Maxson:
So it’s stuff like that that I think if you can find small ways to do it, like, you don’t have to go big, you don’t have to go grand. Right. There are so many ways that you can make an impact and Mhmm. There’s so many things out there now, like, there’s different software for, like, rounding up and donating back. So even for invoicing, things like that. It’s really easy to do if you’re just willing to spend a little bit time thinking about it. Mhmm. And it’s way easier to do if it’s something that you’re passionate about too.
Erin Maxson:
Right? So those are the biggest misconceptions that I think people have. And I know peep people probably look at me and they’re like, Erin, you have you’re such a large business, and you have so much. And Mhmm. I do now, but I did not before.
Amy Vaughn:
Well and and being on the other side of that too is, like, what you’re making me think of is the fact that, like, when you are, you know, doing mission driven marketing, making sure that every interaction, you are treating each customer with kindness and care and appreciation and letting them know that each interaction counts. And it’s not just transactional, that it is transformational. Every time somebody decides to take whatever action that they can take, you know, whether it’s a dollar, $5, but it it matters, and making sure that you’re explicitly saying that and letting them know it is creating it’s it’s it’s it’s cementing the relationship. It’s building trust, and it’s loyalty because, right, like, you continue to keep showing up. Right? They’ll keep following along. They’ll keep contributing versus just saying, okay. Yeah. Thanks.
Amy Vaughn:
Thanks for your dollar. K. Bye. You know what I mean? Makes such a difference when you treat it differently or when you see it differently and appreciate every little interaction and appreciate any instance in which they can show up and give versus just kind of diminishing their contribution regardless.
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. Yeah. 100%. That’s so important. It’s so important to get into that. I think that we’re all so busy and life moves so fast, and it’s hard sometimes to really stop and be grateful for those moments when you have them, where you get to learn about a client or you get to learn about a team member or a member. But it really is what it’s all about. And if you’re trying to find ways to have an impact, like, the first thing you can do is listen and be there and understand somebody.
Erin Maxson:
I wouldn’t say deeply, but deeper in order to make that impact.
Amy Vaughn:
Oh, absolutely. It’s funny when we go and, do you remember 1 on ones for all of our new members with Together Digital, and they’re always like, oh, thank you so much for your time. I know how busy you are. And I say, I know how busy you are.
Erin Maxson:
You are.
Amy Vaughn:
You know, my time is no more valuable than yours, and you’re investing to be here. So I’m gonna invest in being here for you. And it’s one of those things, like, I love it. It’s my favorite part of the day. I get to learn and understand how they found out about us, why they’re here, what they need. It’s just as valuable for me, hopefully, as it is for them. And so I think you and I
Erin Maxson:
I have already talked 3 times since I joined, and it’s not even a month. It’s so great.
Amy Vaughn:
It is so great. And then it’s absolutely well worth my time. And it’s one of those things now as a business owner that I will never change my mind about. I will always find a way to make time on my calendar for my members because they are first and foremost the most important part of my business because without them, I have no business. Yeah. And for any other business without your customers, how do you have a business? So it’s just it’s just one of those things. You just have to make room for those kinds of you know, it’s not transactional. You are building relationships.
Amy Vaughn:
I don’t care what you’re selling. It is about those relationships and showing up. And so when people take the time to show up, you gotta show up for them, and you gotta say thank you and appreciate the time and the energy, the effort and the choice because we have so many choices now. Right? Yeah. An abundance of choices. Yeah. And, oh my gosh, we just did a master class on sales. And, oh my gosh, I’m trying to remember the quote that she said.
Amy Vaughn:
She was, Westland. She was brilliant. She said, we are also running up against the challenge that we always face with the, the, the, decision not to solve the problem, to not do anything. We’re not just competing with our competitors. We’re competing with the choice to not do anything. And I’m like, oh my gosh. She’s so right. Anyhow, the next question I have for you is as I mentioned earlier, we’ve got Kohatches across the country.
Amy Vaughn:
You guys are growing, obviously. How do you ensure that you, you know, can, from a local, I don’t know how I worded this question. It doesn’t read right to me now. Hold on. Let me read it and then try to say it. How do you scale authentically, and create impact with initiatives, nationally when you’re kind of you know, you’re you’re all over? Yeah. Hopefully, that makes sense.
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. It does not make sense. I hope my answer will make sense. It’s definitely one of my biggest challenges. You know? I think I have worked at, like, internationally involved companies before and it’s always been a very blank slate everywhere. Right? Like, you may have a, you know, language difference, but the brand, the values, all that stuff. There’s not a lot of stuff that really changes too much. But for us, as we go into every city, every town, it is a challenge because we have learned so much in the last 3 to 4 years, especially with how everybody’s operating differently post COVID too.
Erin Maxson:
Like
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah.
Erin Maxson:
The culture of people getting out and about is very different from what it used to be. Right? And we’re a very small team. So there’s only 4 people that work with me on marketing including our part time intern right now. So we support all of our locations nationally and it’s definitely a challenge to get the right mix of, like, this is COHACHS, this is what we do. Yeah. And then also, you know, we’re going to Tampa, and then we’re also in Pittsburgh. Yeah. It’s very, very different, and the people are very different everywhere we go.
Erin Maxson:
But we do spend quite a bit of time trying to get to know the community before we go in. Mhmm. A lot of demographic research goes into it for us, understanding what are the hot spots. One of the biggest things we have learned, especially post COVID, these downtown areas that were once bustling and everybody was so stoked to go to the office. I don’t know if that was ever true, but people don’t wanna go down there anymore. Like, they wanna be working close to home. They wanna be doing stuff that’s important to them, their families, working with organizations that are actually making improvements in and progressing in their neighborhoods. Like, we’re getting down to very granular, like, it’s not about are you making a widespread change in the nation, it’s about are you making a change in my neighborhood down the street, 2 blocks away? So we do a lot of work trying to get in with chambers, trying to meet all kinds of local businesses.
Erin Maxson:
Even businesses that we know won’t use our space, retail businesses, things like that, working with the city to ensure that we are delivering on what they actually need and how their people are operating and coming together. But once we open a location is really when I think the local really hits in for us because we try to do a lot of upfront. We do have people on the ground. Right? Mhmm. But it’s some of that that you can’t get until you see the people using our spaces. And so that ties always goes back to the storytelling. Like, we have so many great non profits. We have so many great entrepreneurs, startups.
Erin Maxson:
We’ve got all these great people and they’re so different everywhere, but they’re also the same. Right? They all have kinda the same needs. But it’s also one of those things that, like, the I’ve got I could name half a dozen nonprofits that I’ve talked to and interviewed that I’m, like, y’all do the same thing, but you’re all completely different. You know? And it’s seeing that and and once we’ve opened our doors and seeing the people that use our spaces that really helps me gauge the mix a bit better and make sure that we’re doing things authentically. Mhmm. And unless we run into any crazy stuff before we open a location, you know, some communities are different. Development is always fun. Yeah.
Erin Maxson:
But I think some of that is so important for you to do a lot of the planning upfront to make sure that you’re not missing the mark locally.
Amy Vaughn:
Mhmm.
Erin Maxson:
But you really aren’t gonna know until you’re there and you’re talking to the people and you meet the people and especially the most engaged people.
Amy Vaughn:
Mhmm.
Erin Maxson:
And so I take a lot of stock into the feedback that we get from early users. I take a lot of stock into testimonials. Like, we have Slack channels where we get every single review that comes in and I review every single one. Our team responds to every review. We take all that feedback and we do something with it. Right? Or if somebody shares a really great moment, like, we have impact stories for our scholars, they can go in and add anything that they’ve achieved, you know, being in our space. And that’s the stuff that, you know, like, I’ll reach out to somebody the same day because it’s so important to me to understand locally what’s needed because so so many other businesses I’ve been at have always been focused nationally.
Amy Vaughn:
Right.
Erin Maxson:
And once you get to that size rate, like, losing a member or 10 or 20 or 50 doesn’t feel like anything. But every member that is at COHatch means something to me. They’re here for a reason. Mhmm. And anytime we have a bad experience, I wanna know
Amy Vaughn:
Right.
Erin Maxson:
Why? What did we do wrong? Is there something that we could have done differently? Is there just a different mindset or a different culture?
Amy Vaughn:
Mhmm.
Erin Maxson:
And I learn every day. I just
Amy Vaughn:
I think you just made such a good point, and I’m gonna put a pin in it and say that it’s listening. It’s listening and acting on what you hear, and it sounds so simple, but it’s so profound and important because I think a lot of businesses want to create impact, but it becomes an echo chamber because they don’t look outside themselves and they don’t ask for the feedback. And then if they do ask for the feedback, they don’t truly listen and or act on it. Right? They’ll sit with it. They’ll hold on to it. They’ll sit on it, but they don’t really take it into account, and they don’t truly act on it. But I think that is such an important aspect of it. And I will say having so we got to tour.
Amy Vaughn:
We did a roadshow, not this last year, but the year before that. And so we got to tour, like, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh. And so, yeah, shout out to Lynette in Pittsburgh. We loved it. But getting to see each of the pits, each of the different locations, what was really cool is that there was that common, like, you know, you felt that common thread of, like, COHatch, you know, branding and just consistency of certain things. But at the same time, I love the way you all kind of feel like that outside community brought inward. And, you know, each of your community managers had, like, that sense of, like, understanding and nuance of, like, what from the outside influences from the outside community got brought into, like, the design or, like, the layout of the actual COHatch. And I love that intentionality.
Amy Vaughn:
And so, like, the community managers, like I said, specifically, Lynette was really good about, like, pointing out certain things about the design and, like, the walls and things like that that kind of reflected Pittsburgh and its history in that area in particular. And I think a lot of things that I don’t know. It just speaks true to the people who, you know, live in that area and want to work in that area when they see somebody new coming into the space and they’re like, well, I want myself, my home, my my values, my city to feel reflected. And I think that’s really smart. It goes to show that you all are listening, and then you’re reflecting back to the people that you want to feel, that are coming into the space to feel seen, heard, and valued. And when they see that, you know, they feel comfortable. They feel at home, and it’s so it’s just so smart, and all it is is listening. So I think it makes, to me, all the sense in the world.
Amy Vaughn:
I also wanna give a shout because I know you guys are opening a Covington location soon. So we have a lot of Cincinnati friends, in our membership base and Cincinnati listeners. So if you’re listening, get ready. Was it February? Is that right?
Erin Maxson:
Yep. I was hoping for February, January, February.
Amy Vaughn:
It’s exciting. Lots of awesome little businesses out there in Covington too. The main Stross area, fabulous area. So if you’re looking for some coworker office space in Covington, y’all need to check it out. Maybe we’ll do a Together Digital event there too.
Erin Maxson:
Yeah.
Amy Vaughn:
Alright. Fantastic. Okay. Could you share a time when a community initiative let’s just go to the other side of things because, you know, sometimes things don’t always go to plan, and we learn from all things. It’s not just about success without strife. Right? So when did a community initiative maybe not quite go as planned? And what did you learn from it?
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. I think one of the ones that I was so excited about was this initiative. So one of our GIVE Scholars, Chad Jocelyn, has a patented wear pack. It started with, you know, during clear bag I I everybody does clear bags now for, like, sporting events and things like that. So he patented his own. And he was a Boost Scholar for us, a start up scholar for us for several years. He ended up expanding, moving to Cleveland, has his own warehouse, and has his own production facility now. He got funding from several co-op people, members, and founders alike.
Erin Maxson:
And, it was really cool for him to come back because he saw what we were doing with Star House online and said he wanted to figure out a way for us to work together and collaborate. So we went on kinda this rabbit hole of, like, okay. We’re gonna design a Star House wear pack. We’re gonna do this back to school campaign so that anybody who purchases a wear pack can either give it back and give it to the youth at Star House, through their drop in center, which is open 24 hours a day. So they give things like backpacks, food, toothbrushes, all that stuff, to the unhoused youth of Columbus. And so we were doing this. We were like, oh, this is really cool. We obviously bought a few to donate back, and then we put the campaign out there.
Erin Maxson:
We pushed it for 2 months. I think we ended up outside of our purchases, we ended up getting, like, 6 or 7 bags purchased. We even got picked up by a couple of news outlets for this. And so it was one of those things where it’s like, oh, it sounded so good. There was a lot of logistics behind it. We really wanted to make an impact with it, a larger impact with it, I guess. And, you know, we kinda fell short of that mark. Right? And it was one of it was harder for me and Dave because we were like, oh, we did all these interviews.
Erin Maxson:
We put all these social posts and got photos and did design work and all this. And we only ended up with 6 bags being purchased despite all of all of the good feedback and all that. So it’s one of those things that a lot of times when you’re doing impact driven items or marketing campaigns or strategies, you have to do a lot of logistics. You have to do a lot of work upfront. And if you’ve never done it before, you have to be prepared to watch it fly or fail. And I am not saying I would never do something like it again. I think if we had a longer runway, like, there could have been things that we could have done to maybe prepare more for it and put more behind it even. But for us, because we do so many other things, it’s also a challenge for us to get good initiatives off the ground because we offer so much.
Erin Maxson:
People, you know, we do co-working and office and meetings and events and we, you know, we’ve got all kinds of things going on everywhere. And so what I learned from that particular campaign, we had a crazy busy summer. We introduced a new offer. We had a lot of people that were really interested in all our other stuff and we had so much other stuff going on. It probably just wasn’t the right time to do it. Mhmm. But it’s one of those things that, you know, you live, you learn.
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah.
Erin Maxson:
Then I loved the results, but we still were able to make a small impact, which is important too. Yeah. So if you’re looking at yourself from a failure perspective and you’re saying, oh, I shot for the moon and, you know, only got to one star, that’s okay. You live and you learn. But it’s it was one of those that I was like, oh, I I took so much from it and, like, if we were to ever do a collaboration project with somebody else
Amy Vaughn:
Mhmm.
Erin Maxson:
Like that, I definitely would go about things a little bit differently. But I think I still would probably say yes to a project like that. It just would be different circumstances and time.
Amy Vaughn:
Right. Timing. Yeah. Timing has a lot to do with it. Right? I feel like some of my most, yeah, most of the projects that maybe haven’t gone exactly the way that I wanted had a lot to do with the timing and lead time for promotions because yeah. And frequency of messaging is probably, like, another big thing. We are competing with a very
Erin Maxson:
So much stuff. So much attention.
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah. For sure. For sure. That’s yeah. That’s a great example. Thank you for sharing that. I know it’s not always easy to talk about those things, but I think it’s really really important, you know, to kind of learn for where we have fallen flat because, yeah, I just we don’t talk about that stuff enough, but that’s really where the learnings truly are. Right?
Erin Maxson:
Oh, yeah.
Amy Vaughn:
100%. Success. Yeah. Awesome. Alright. How do you measure success when it comes to impact marketing? What do you feel are some of the metrics that matter most?
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. I think I mean, I’ve said a million times. We always go back to revenue. Right? And it’s always really hard, especially when we’re doing things I mean, like, we’re doing, like, a build and brew event in Columbus for Star House or, you know, all the proceeds of adult beverages and building furniture and donating will go to Star House. Tracking the success of that would obviously be related to donations and things and, you know, the money that goes around it. But it’s also hard to track in some ways because it’s some of that stuff. Our members love that, and they stick around because we make it so easy for them to access things that they need, whether they’re fulfilled with volunteering. And we’ve had a Star House renovation day. We always have so many people that want to volunteer and they’re like, thank you for making this so accessible.
Erin Maxson:
So it’s stuff like that. You’ll see the revenue and the donation side, but you’ll also see it long term. Right? Like, we talked about relationship building and how easy and accessible it is to be able to do certain things around impact. But really the thing for me and one of the most powerful things, we switched over to Sprout Social two and a half years ago. Mhmm. And one of my favorite tools that they have is the social listening tool. Mhmm. And it basically generates, like, this word cloud of, like, positive, negative, neutral intent.
Erin Maxson:
You can read through all of, you know, like, what would be, like, high quality, highly engaged people, whether they’re members or just fans of what we do, right, online. And I really and I can’t say enough. And I know that’s how we all operate now. Like, if we wanna go somewhere new, we look at reviews. Right? So social media, listening to that, reviews, anybody that’s a repeat person. I get a lot of people that are individual entrepreneurs or influencers or whatever, and they’re working out of our spaces and they’re sharing content with us all day every day. It’s almost impossible for us to keep up with our social now
Amy Vaughn:
Mhmm.
Erin Maxson:
Because we have so many people that are so drawn to sharing about us and that’s fantastic. It’s that stuff for me that shows the impact and how much you actually truly make a dent in somebody’s day. Right? Our goal is always to be the place where you come and you’re the most fulfilled version of yourself. You’re working just down the street from your house or where your kids go to school. You have access to volunteering. We make it easy. You sign up. You bring your kids.
Amy Vaughn:
Mhmm.
Erin Maxson:
You can go to the gym right down the road. You can go to some of our reps. We do all this stuff on purpose. Yeah. Because we want it to be easy
Amy Vaughn:
Mhmm.
Erin Maxson:
And we want the impact to go as far and as deep as you’re willing to take it. And those stories, those social posts, the reviews, the feedback, those are really the things that I look at when it comes to Impact Marketing, and especially when we’re doing, like, partnerships and things like that too. I wanna know, did our partnership help you and your community? If you’re a scholar of ours, did it help you find funding? Mhmm. You know, volunteers. Did somebody offer to volunteer to do something? Is that as a coach member now on your board?
Amy Vaughn:
Right.
Erin Maxson:
Those are the stories and, you know, data points we try to collect. Mhmm. As well as, like, how many times you’re coming into space. Mhmm. You know, what are you using all the things in your membership? Are you booking your free life event? If not, why not? Let’s get your birthday party or something going. Like Yeah. Those are all things that we push really hard for and I’m really trying to get it and it’s so difficult to track. Right? Because you know there are a lot of people that are like, oh, I don’t want you to have my data.
Amy Vaughn:
Right.
Erin Maxson:
I get it. Yeah. But those are the really important parts of what I do in marketing.
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah.
Erin Maxson:
Everything, ad impressions, whatever. I would care less about that now Mhmm. Because the real conversion, the real result for us is about how deep our impact goes Mhmm. For each individual. Right. I don’t necessarily have to make an impact on all 7,000,000,000 people in the world. Right. But if I can help 100 people in Delaware, Ohio Mhmm.
Erin Maxson:
That’s crazy. That’s an amazing impact. Mhmm.
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah. Because of the ripple effect as well. Right? That word-of-mouth and the story sharing. I love that. Yeah. Positive, like, engagement and that positive engagement. Those are both really huge. I love it.
Amy Vaughn:
Alright. For anyone who is looking to start to incorporate purpose into their marketing strategy, what is one action that they could start to take this week?
Erin Maxson:
I actually have been thinking about this for myself personally because we do a lot of stuff at work. Right? So we got a lot of stuff going on for Impact, and I love that. But one of the biggest things as we’re getting into 2025, I’ve been doing a lot of sitting with myself. And I think the biggest thing, if you wanna start doing this for your business, if you wanna start doing this as a side thing, volunteering, whatever, you gotta get you gotta sit down and you gotta know yourself. What are you passionate about? What time can you commit? Mhmm. Is there money you can put towards it? Is your time more valuable than your money right now? Is it a donation thing that you’d rather do versus, you know, volunteering? That’s so important for you to get down and dirty with those details because if you start doing something and going down a road because you just wanna make an impact and you don’t know you don’t care what it is or it doesn’t matter right now, you just wanna do something, you’re you’re not gonna help anybody. You’re gonna be unmotivated, results aren’t gonna be good, and everybody’s gonna be frustrated whoever you’re trying to help. Mhmm.
Erin Maxson:
If you can figure that out, and I’m giving you another step here, connect with somebody on LinkedIn that’s a part of that cause or somebody that knows the real true needs. Set up a coffee chat. I mean, that’s all that’s all we’re about. See other digital. I’ve had so many chats with people already and Yeah. It’s so fun to be able to really understand people’s needs and issues and try to find solutions and brainstorm that. Mhmm. And sometimes it’s a symbol of, like, I just need you to set up an email signature or make some tweaks on my website.
Erin Maxson:
Like, I help people do that from time to time because I, you know, they need it and it’s the simple thing that I can do. So no matter what you decide to do, it’s so important to get it aligned with what you really care about because if you don’t I mean, I’ve I’ve been guilty of it myself. Somebody needs help and then I commit myself to 10 hours and I don’t wanna do it because Right. I don’t see the impact. It doesn’t impact me the same way. Like, all my dog stuff impacts me significantly more than it would for another cause, probably. Mhmm. Because that’s just who I am.
Amy Vaughn:
Yes.
Erin Maxson:
So, and always just ask people what they need. That’s the first step. Like, don’t put yourself as, like, I wanna be the savior. I wanna be the hero.
Amy Vaughn:
Right.
Erin Maxson:
Like, you’ve got to put your listening ears on Mhmm. And help people where they actually need to be helped. Because like you said, we have the choice now that if we have a problem Mhmm. We have so many other problems, we can say we don’t wanna fix that right now. Right. We’ve got 7 other problems. So make sure your solutions are aligned with the impact that you’re trying to make.
Amy Vaughn:
To make. I agree. I agree. And we went I think we chatted this earlier too when we were talking through your onboarding, and we’ve got, after the new year, our goal getters workshop for members, and it’s all about values alignment and understanding your values and setting your goals so that you’re not doing the shoulds of everyone else. You are doing the things you feel are in alignment with the things you should be doing. And it just it it’s it just aligns so nicely with what you just said because, you know, we’ve a lot of us face burnout because we do have a lot of skills and talents, and we want to serve, help, and, support others, but oftentimes, we end up giving those gifts away because it’s just like, oh, yeah. I can fix that. I can do that.
Amy Vaughn:
But then when you do and put those energies, like you said, towards the things that do fill us up, it feels so different versus kind of just giving it all away without that return of, oh, this fulfills a value that I hold. It’s helping animals. It’s, you know, helping somebody that’s elderly, that’s writing a book for the first time and has been sitting on this aspiration for so long. So, yeah, it’s a different kind of reward. I love that advice. Alright. We’ve got a few minutes left, and I wanna we’re gonna do one more question and then our power round, but I wanna make sure that our live listeners know that you all I love it. You’ve been getting lots of accolades, of course, Erin.
Amy Vaughn:
You’re much loved
Erin Maxson:
trying not to
Amy Vaughn:
get to that. But if you all have any questions, you are more than welcome to drop in a question if you have them. We’re both, you know, bibliophiles. We love our books. Have there been any books in particular that have shaped your approach to mission driven marketing that you’d like to recommend to our listeners?
Erin Maxson:
Yeah. So this is awful for somebody who’s like, oh, I’m so impact driven and mission driven. I have had to pull it out because I finally found it, and I told you I was, like, searching for it earlier. Yeah. This book, How Change Happens, has been on my to- read list for, like, the last year or so, and I have not picked it up yet. It’s been one that I’ve been wanting to read. I will say I probably am more of a fiction girl these days. I used to read a lot of business books.
Erin Maxson:
Okay. But, you know, work work stays at work.
Amy Vaughn:
You’re living it. You’re living it. Trying to
Erin Maxson:
do it. But this book is one I’ve been wanting to pick up for a while, and I think we have so many things that I’m trying to get involved with right now that it makes sense, and Mhmm. It came highly recommended. So the How Change Happens by Leslie R Crutchfield.
Amy Vaughn:
Awesome.
Erin Maxson:
And it talks through successful and failed campaigns of the 21st century that have inspired societal, social, cultural change, and it gives you some, like, actual tips. So I’ve skimmed several chapters that I have not fully read the book, but, if you’re interested in learning how to make change, whether that be at work or anywhere else, I think that would be a good read.
Amy Vaughn:
Okay. Well, you’re gonna have to know, you got that 24 hour flight coming up. You’ll have to let us know that we’ve got our books, podcasts, and articles channel on Slack, so you have to let us know what you think of it.
Erin Maxson:
Oh, yep. I definitely will.
Amy Vaughn:
I’ve not seen anything. It sounds amazing. I like the thought of it. Alright. Well, I don’t see any questions popping up yet, so we’ll go through our power round. Alright. I’m a nature nerd, and I love a good hike, but I also love the water. So I wanted to know, desert hike or a day on the water? My shoes.
Erin Maxson:
I absolutely love those. So in the summer, we are on the river pretty much every other weekend. We do a lot of paddle boarding. My dog Rory is my captain. Aw. I’ll have to post some photos in the Slack channel about that.
Amy Vaughn:
Yes, ma’am.
Erin Maxson:
Right now though, the weather is perfect. The weekend weather is supposed to be high of 72 and it’s sunny and beautiful. So we’re gonna go for a hike, this time around. We do a lot of hiking and bike backpacking and the dogs have been in the house pretty much all summer. Oh. So we’ve got a run off of the day. Yeah. So, yeah, I’ll say a desert hike.
Amy Vaughn:
Alright. I’m gonna have to get out there to visit you and Meredith soon. Alright. Most used app on your phone?
Erin Maxson:
Oh my god. I’m so not excited. I’m gonna say Instagram
Amy Vaughn:
Yeah.
Erin Maxson:
Because it’s so bad. My partner probably is so annoyed with me every night. I absolutely like them. Memes are my go to Yeah. For good and bad days, but animal videos. So Oh, wow. I learn so many new things about animals every single day, and I’m constantly bothering Alex with, like, look at this new animal I found, and I’m gonna tell you 20 new facts about it. I love it.
Erin Maxson:
So that’s how I use Instagram. I would love to say that I use it to, like, further my knowledge and work and everywhere else, but it’s mostly animals. I’m not gonna lie.
Amy Vaughn:
Therapy. I love it. That’s great. A funny story, fun fact, I used to have a printed picture of kittens in a barrel when my team at the agency would get really stressed out. I would just bust out the kittens in a barrel picture and be like, look. Everything’s gonna be okay. Like, hey. Just look at the kittens in a barrel.
Amy Vaughn:
You’ll be alright.
Erin Maxson:
Hilarious. I love it.
Amy Vaughn:
Oh my gosh. Let’s see. You’re okay. I’m gonna go to the last one here because we’re out of time. Your 3 dogs’ personalities in three words.
Erin Maxson:
Okay. I’ve already talked about Rory so much. She’s my first dog that I ever adopted as an adult, but the word for her is Angel. Mhmm. She’s the best. She’s the sweetest. Can’t I just can’t say enough good things about her. My middle dog, Asta, who we also call pasta most of the time Cute.
Erin Maxson:
Her words are silly. She’s a russ dog, high energy, runs around everywhere. She’s just funny. And then Moe, which is my latest dog I got 2 years ago, she’s huge. She’s a great Pyrenees cattle dog Wow. Collie mix. She’s got wonderful traits, and so we call her chaos monster. So I’ll choose chaos.
Amy Vaughn:
Chaos. I love it. Fantastic. Well, Erin, thank you so much for all of your insightful and very inspirational ideas on how we can all be more effective and more purposeful and mission driven marketers. It’s been a pleasure. Really appreciate your time.
Erin Maxson:
Thank you so much for having me. Have a great time.
Amy Vaughn:
And thank you to everyone who took the time to tune in today, take some notes, share the love in the chat, as well as the conversation today. Everyone, it’s been a pleasure. Thanks for joining us today. We’re excited to see you all next week. Until then, keep asking, keep giving, and keep growing. Take care.
